


Fielder's Choice

by nobinaries



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 21:45:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11860254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nobinaries/pseuds/nobinaries
Summary: Sometimes all it takes is a baseball to the head to wake someone up.





	Fielder's Choice

“Em, Em, open your eyes.”  There was genuine concern in JJ’s voice as she leaned over the prone body of Emily Prentiss.

Emily blinked her eyes trying to bring an extremely fuzzy world into focus.  She knew the blonde figure above her was JJ but more from sense memory than from being able to make out any details of her face.  She could smell sun warmed grass and earth and a soft floral fragrance her addled mind couldn’t quite identify but that she found oddly calming. Emily attempted to lift herself up on her elbows to get a better look at her predicament but as soon as she lifted her head pain throbbed behind her eyes and she promptly lay back down.

“Ow,” it wasn’t much but it was the only sound she could muster.

“Hey, you said something, that’s progress,” Morgan’s voice came from somewhere to her left.  She could hear barely concealed laughter in his tone and knew that sometime later when she figured out what the hell had happened she would probably be properly indignant.

“Em, Emily, I need you to open your eyes and tell me how many fingers I’m holding up.”  Had Emily been able to see straight she would have seen the death glare JJ flashed at Morgan for making light of the situation.  Instead all she saw was two or maybe three fingers as she tried to bring them into sharp focus.

“Two?”  Emily took a stab but in her current state wasn’t able to sound especially convincing even to her own still ringing ears.

“It isn’t really helpful to guess, Prentiss.”  JJ chided softly.  “Come on let’s get you up and get you home.  We need to get some ice on that lump.”  The blond knelt beside Emily helping her into a seated position and once that seemed manageable helping her to stand, though the taller woman leaned heavily on JJ’s shoulder.

Once she made it to the standing position her surroundings started to clarify themselves and the events of the past afternoon came back to her.  Somehow after much cajoling from Morgan, Garcia, and JJ Emily had been convinced to take Hotch’s place on the BAU baseball team for their game against the White Collar Crime division.  It would seem that somewhere in the third inning Emily had come out on the bad side of a fly ball, though the details were admittedly vague at best.

“Sorry guys,” JJ spoke to Morgan and Garcia who were standing close waiting for the prognosis.  “You’ll have to carry on without us.  This one is in no shape to get herself home.”

Morgan wanted to talk JJ into waiting to take Emily home losing two players would mean they’d have to forfeit and he hated the idea of losing to this department in particular.  But he held his tongue, he could tell by the pallor that was obvious even on Emily’s pale complexion that JJ was right.  That noted he trotted over to the captain of the other team to let them know that the post-game beers could start a little early tonight but that it didn’t look like Emily’s injuries were too serious. 

As he watched his two friends make their way off the field and toward JJ’s waiting car he couldn’t help but smile.  He only wished the two of them could see what he saw when they were together.  The energy between them was palpable and it certainly didn’t take a trained profiler to see they were attracted to one another.  Morgan just chuckled and shook his head hoping that something would finally happen to clue them in on what seemed obvious to the rest of the world.  Taking his eyes from their retreating backs he swapped a knowing glance with Garcia as they turned in the opposite direction toward their cars and the nearest pitcher of cold beer.

Emily’s head was starting to clear a bit more as they approached JJ’s car, the pain in her temple still throbbed with each beat of her heart but the world had lost the sort of fuzzy haze filter effect that had been on the edges of her vision.  She still leaned on JJ as they took the last few steps to the passenger side door not quite trusting her knees to support her completely.  JJ’s weight shifted and Emily leaned away using the car for support as the smaller blond opened the door and helped lower the taller woman into the seat. 

Once she was satisfied that Emily was comfortably situated JJ trotted around to the driver’s side and slid behind the wheel.  Now that they were on their way toward Emily’s place and her friend seemed to have all her faculties JJ felt a bit of the worry that had tightened her chest ease.  She didn’t really want to reflect too much on the myriad of emotions she had felt when she’d seen Emily hurt.  If she spent too much time thinking about those feelings she’d have to start examining all the other ones that seemed to surface around the dark-haired agent and JJ had been avoiding those for some time now.

Emily found it impossible to keep her head up with the incessant throbbing so she rested it back on the seat letting her eyes drift shut blocking out the input of the scenery passing by.  When she did so she found the same vaguely floral scent she’d noticed in the field teasing her nostrils.  There was something so familiar and calming about it but she still couldn’t exactly put her finger on where she recognized it from and her head hurt too badly to concentrate for too awfully long at a stretch.

“Hey,” JJ’s voice softly intruded on Emily’s sluggish thoughts.  “You still with me over there?”

“Yeah, I’m still here,” Emily answered vaguely. 

“You really did meet the business end of that ball,” JJ wanted to keep the other woman talking just in case she had a concussion.

“I told you guys I couldn’t play,” Emily answered still not moving her head more than was absolutely necessary.   “I spent my formative sports playing years in countries that played civilized games like cricket.”

At this JJ couldn’t suppress a small chuckle.  She contemplated pointing out that many countries that played cricket also played games like rugby and soccer.  Though she had played soccer herself in college she was the first to admit that come world cup time the sport, or fans at least, were not remotely civilized.  She couldn’t quite bring herself to argue with Emily at the moment however, not with pain still etching its mark on her features. 

“But you didn’t tell us you had no idea how to catch,” JJ teased attempting to make her friend smile.

“Well,” Emily let a self-deprecating grin find its way onto her lips, “I have warned you that I’m a complete dork, right?”

“You may have mentioned it,” JJ laughed lightly.

“See it really is all your fault.  You knew I was hopeless and you asked me to play anyway.”  Emily allowed herself to sound jokingly petulant allowing the friendly banter to distract her from the ache in her head.

“Look just because you enjoy reading Kurt Vonnegut and you are considerably smarter than the average bear doesn’t inherently mean you can’t catch.”  JJ joked back happy that Emily’s sense of humor seemed unharmed by her mishap.

“Then explain to me exactly why you didn’t ask Reid to play,” Emily challenged finally feeling well enough to roll her head to the side and open her eyes so she could look at JJ as she drove.

“Okay,” JJ relented, “perhaps there is some sort of inverse relationship between geekiness and hand eye coordination.”

As she spoke she took the final turn toward Emily’s condo and parked.  JJ was relieved traffic had been light.  Even though she seemed fine the blond would feel a lot better once she had Emily inside with some mild pain killers and an icepack for the lump JJ was certain hid under dark hair.  She quickly parked and exited the car opening Emily’s door before the woman had a chance to reach for the handle.  As she stood and felt a mild wave of dizziness wash over her she was quite thankful JJ had not given her a choice but to accept her help.

JJ wrapped a supportive arm around Emily’s waist and walked them toward the other woman’s front door.  As they made their slow trek down the sidewalk and up the few steps JJ fought with a tangle of emotions.  The obvious feelings on the surface were concern for her friend and a desire to help but once she scratched the surface of those it was easy to see all the others lying beneath.  She hated to see Emily hurting even a little and she knew if given half a chance she’d do anything to take that hurt away.  She also wanted to comfort and not just with an icepack and an aspirin but with gentle hands and soft kisses.  She mentally chastised herself for entertaining such thoughts while Emily was so obviously in pain and in need of a friend.

Emily leaned into JJ readily accepting the contact and the help offered by her steady presence.  Somehow having the smaller woman close made the ache in her head feel more like background noise.  She knew JJ was just being friendly and probably felt at least a little guilty about convincing Emily to try her hand at baseball in the first place but she couldn’t help relishing even this small moment of physical closeness.  She knew it was probably wrong and when she felt better she’d probably take a moment to properly feel guilty about it but right now her head hurt and she was going to indulge that part of herself that always wanted to be close to JJ.  That part that had seemed harder and harder to contain as time passed.

Emily managed with only minimal production to fish her keys out of her pocket and unlock the front door to her condo.  As she did so she straightened and took the few steps inside under her own power deciding she’d taken advantage of JJ’s closeness long enough.  Her knees seemed willing to hold her and the room held steady not wavering in her vision.  All in all she felt as though she was pulling it together fairly well.

“Why don’t you go get comfortable on the couch,” JJ offered as she began searching around the kitchen for something to fill with ice.  “I’ll get you some ice for that head.”

“There’s a couple of blue icepacks in the freezer,” Emily offered helpfully as she lowered herself onto the sofa and looked out over her view of the capitol. 

“Have you got any Tylenol or anything?”  JJ asked rather than rifling through Emily’s bathroom cabinets. “I’m sure your head is pounding.”

“Yeah,” Emily answered.  “It’s in the medicine cabinet.  I think I’ll take two.”

JJ returned to the living room with two red and yellow pills, a blue icepack wrapped in a soft towel from the bathroom, and a tall glass of water.  She handed Emily the pills and the water first and Emily sat up enough to take them before lowering herself back down on the sofa cushions.  Without thought JJ sat on the small open bit of couch next to Emily’s hip and leaned forward gently placing the ice on Emily’s head.  She felt a small pang in her heart as the action caused a hiss of pain to escape Emily’s lips.  JJ’s hand that had been holding the ice moved to brush a soothing touch over the small wrinkle that had appeared between Emily’s brows wanting to wipe away the lingering discomfort.

When JJ placed the ice pack on Emily’s head the dark-haired woman was forced to realize how much that lump really hurt.  As much as she wanted too she couldn’t stop the vocalization of that realization from forcing its way between her lips, nor could she stop her eyes from once again drifting shut.  She was pleasantly surprised to feel JJ’s fingertips brushing her forehead, a motion that Emily found remarkably comforting.  Once again with her eyes closed she caught the hint of flowers, no lilacs, she could definitely pinpoint the type of flower now.  It made her think of sitting in her grandmother’s garden in the early summer as a child.  The bundles of purple and white flowers hung low over her favorite seat where she would love to sit and read all day.  Another inhalation brought the realization that the fragrance was also the one JJ wore almost every day.

Emily’s eyes remained closed as she committed the scent to memory.   She was fully aware it wasn’t just because it reminded her of childhood but because the perfume was uniquely JJ.  It was subtle, almost subliminal in its lightness, and yet defining and it never ceased to sooth Emily’s jagged nerves whenever she’d noticed it.  Her brain had been too scrambled after getting beaned by a baseball to realize but now she could connect the dots.  Whenever something happened when they worked a case JJ was there, offering silent support and a gentle hand, and that scent that now settled quietly over them on Emily’s couch.  Now that she had memorized the fragrance her eyes fluttered back open to be greeted by JJ’s wide open blue gaze.

“You’re beautiful,” Emily’s internal editor had apparently been knocked unconscious in the afternoon’s events.  It actually took her a moment to realize she’d said the first words that had popped into her head, but the look of surprise in JJ’s blue eyes confirmed that in fact Emily had externalized what was supposed to have been an entirely internal statement.  Emily could feel a blush rise in her pale cheeks as she realized she may have let a rather large cat out of a previously sealed bag.

“What?”  JJ was fairly certain she had heard correctly but couldn’t quite wrap her brain around those words coming from Emily’s mouth.

“I’m sorry…that was…I,” Emily stumbled over her words while trying to sit up attempting to take any awkwardness out of their physical proximity.  “Ow!”  In her attempt, she sat up too quickly and pressed the icepack into the highly sensitive lump on her head.  She was quickly coming to the realization that this was the moment, the one that always happened where she exposed what a true dork she was to any person she’d ever even remotely been interested in.

“Whoa,” JJ reached out both hands freezing Emily in place and capturing dark embarrassed eyes with her lighter blue gaze. “Hold still, there’s no need to go running off.  Besides, I’m pretty okay with you thinking I’m beautiful.”

“Really,” Emily decided that being wacked in the head had not only removed her internal editor but had also rendered her far too monosyllabic for her liking.  She knew she was staring at JJ in some sort of goofy wide-eyed shock but she couldn’t seem to bring her usually cool façade back into place.  Her head still ached too profoundly for her to think completely clearly and she’d already managed to stick her foot in her mouth.  Though, that part seemed to have worked in her favor since JJ wasn’t objecting to her earlier editorializing.

JJ smiled as Emily’s eyes widened in surprise at her words.  It was adorable and endearing to see the look of almost childlike surprise spread across those usually schooled features.  JJ took a moment to stare into those eyes realizing she’d been so convinced her crush was pointless she’d failed to pay attention to even the simplest clues.  It was a good thing they didn’t pay her to be a profiler because if they had she certainly wouldn’t have been earning her money.  If this worked out as she hoped she’d have to make sure and give Emily a hard time about earning her pay check, after her head had healed, and after she tried one other little thing.

Emily couldn’t quite believe what was happening.  Perhaps her head injury was worse than she had first thought but she had the distinct impression that JJ was leaning in to kiss her even as she held an icepack to the side of her head.  JJ was closing the space between them, this was definitely happening.  Emily tried to prepare herself but the unbelievable softness of JJ lips was something she’d dreamt about for so long there was no way to brace herself for it.  Suddenly the pain in her head was a distant echo lost in the delicate touch of lips and the drifting scent of lilacs.

JJ pulled back grinning at Emily hoping she’d read everything correctly and acted accordingly.  As long as Emily needed that icepack on her head that kiss would have to be enough but from the look in those dark eyes JJ knew the moment she was recovered there would be far more than one kiss.  JJ scooted in closer her hand sliding down Emily’s arm to entwine their fingers as the dark-haired woman leaned back again into the cushions.

“You know,” Emily grinned wickedly at JJ, “maybe baseball isn’t so bad after all.”

 


End file.
